$1 billion runway no longer needed

A runway built for $1.1 billion near St. Louis, Missouri, is no longer needed despite controversy surrounding the development.

Plans to build a new runway at Lambert Airport were settled in 1998, when the terminal experienced serious delays. As TWA used Lambert as its primary hub, hold-ups caused by fog and storms were felt across the country, but since September 11, 2001, the amount of traffic passing through Lambert has decreased dramatically.

American Airlines has cut the number of flights to the airport by half, while overall traffic is down 36 per cent on flights prior to 2001.

The building program involved the destruction of as many as 2,000 churches, homes, businesses, and schools in the local Bridgetown area, while people in St. Charles said that the runway would bring noise to their front rooms.

With delays of 30 minutes or more having dropped by half without the new runway, airport director Kevin Dolliole said that customers will barely notice any improvements.

"The flying public doesn't recognize delays until they get to be pretty extreme," Dolliole told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

"Unless we were back in the situation of extreme delays on a regular basis, they won't notice the impact or the difference."

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